Not even GNOME itself could ignore the GNOME 3 criticism for much longer. "As part of the planning for the DropOrFixFallbackMode feature, we've decided that we will compile a list of supported gnome-shell extensions. This will be a small list, focused on just bringing back some central 'classic' UX elements: classic alt tab, task bar, min/max buttons, main menu. To ensure that these extensions keep working, we will release them as a tarball, just like any other module."

Talking about workstations, I'm also interested in what we'll get after RHEL6. I can't really see Gnome Shell in this role. Not that I have to worry about it - it wouldn't be qualified by our software vendors anyway. And since an OS is either qualified in its default configuration or not at all, it raises an interesting question about the future of RHEL.

You just made a very sensible point. I am sure Red Hat is looking into this. Don't be surprised if tomorrow Red Hat announces XFCE as their new default user interface. If they did something like they did in the past, with Bluecurv'ing KDE and GNOME; tweak XFCE and clean up its rough edges, then XFCE would gain real momentum.

Debian has already changed to XFCE as default, although being pretty cynical about the real motives.